Trip to Kashmir: All you want to know

1. How many days trip will be sufficient for Kashmir? 

Minimum of 5 days is required for exploring Kashmir reasonably well. It can go upto 7 days also if possible. 

2. Are there direct flights available from Chennai? What about train facilities? 

There are no direct flights from Chennai; interestingly there are direct flights available to Kashmir from Hyderabad ! We went upto Delhi and then from Delhi to Kashmir. There are various flights in both these direction- ie: Chennai to Delhi  and Delhi to Kashmir; minimum of 10 to 15 flights are there on both these routes. We selected the same carrier (Indigo) as the luggage will directly come upto Kashmir and we need not take it again during lay over; We preferred Indigo as Vistara schedules had some disruption in April 2024. Otherwise Vistara will be very good too. 

There is a direct train available from Chennai to Kashmir- but it takes 2 full days to reach; 4 days will be spent (To and Fro) in travel alone.

3. How did we plan our trip? Who helped with the travel plan?

Since its May,  we decided to go for a Hill station and Kashmir was in our bucket list for many years. 

If its South India we can plan hotels. etc ourselves. Being a completely new place, we decided to engage a travel agent. Daughter found out SK Vacations (Contact: 8608384027) from Internet and I was bowled over reading about them in the Google reviews; Every one had highly praised about them. We spoke to them few times and felt the genuineness with them. This agency is run by a husband and wife - both their first letters are S and K. We dealt with Mrs. Kalai only right from the beginning and she planned the entire trip- including hotel bookings, car travel and Rope car travel. 

4. Is it possible to plan ourself or booking through a travel agent is a must?

Photo taken during one of our morning walk

This is the first time we went through a travel agency and it really relieved us from spending so much time for reading about each hotel, plan the places, look for cab, etc. May be the travel agent may have their own margin, but we save a lot of time and there was no chaos. 

5. What is the ideal time to visit Kashmir?

March to September is the ideal time to visit Kashmir and climate in many places will  be manageable for most of us. 

A bridge en route to Phahalgam

There are people who go specifically during Dec or Jan to enjoy complete snowfall in all the places. October and November is said to be the lean season in Kashmir and less tourists come during this time. March mid to April mid - the Tuplip garden will be open and you can see them only during this one month window. 

6. What are the must visit places in Srinagar? 

Srinagar - Summer capital is a must visit place. Mostly you will get down here; It is a beautiful city surrounded by lovely mountains. Climate is cool and tourist places are not very crowded . (Roads have high traffic with many cars !!!). You can see apple and pine trees in many places (In May you can see the trees only and not the fruits)

Dal lake is the most iconic place and the famous Shikara ride happens in Dal lake. One can take 1 hour or two hour Shikara ride and most of the tourists take this ride & do not miss it. 

                                                      

Lot of vendors will come and sell many things while you are going for boating- you can simply ignore most of them. There is a big market in the lake itself- you can see the beauty of it- we did not do any purchase in the Dal lake ride, except taking photo in Kashmiri dress. (Next day we found that every place we go in Srinagar, we have this Kashmiri dress and photos)

Sun sets very very late in Kashmir and only 7.30 to 8 PM it becomes dark, when we visited in May 1st week. We took the Shikara ride from 5.45 to 7.45 PM so that we enjoyed both sun light and to see the Dal lake under lights. It was a beautiful ride; we had Tamil songs from our phone for 2 hours and relaxed. 

Elders tour - all are 60 to 80 years .. They were having a great fun !

There are many gardens in Srinagar; in our view, if you visit Botanical garden, you can see almost all the flowers there; in other places, the same flowers are there again. And Botanical garden is huge and very lush in green.

Pari Mahal in Srinagar is a must visit place. 

View from Pari Mahal

Its a fort which was built by a Mugal king; it has 3 layers - Ground floor, First floor and second floor; Surrounded by lake and mountains. Very scenic and spending an hour or two is a must for any tourist. 

7. What are the other places to visit in Kashmir? 

Gulmarg ! You cannot miss it; This is fully surrounded by snow. 

There is a cable car ride here to reach the Snow games place and one need to book this ticket 2-3 weeks in advance. 

Cable car ride..

Our tour operator spent several hours to book our ticket online 2 weeks before our travel. There are 2 phases in cable car trip - we went for 1st phase only; 2nd phase tickets are very limited and we did not get it. We were told that it is in a very high altitude and few get breathing trouble once they reach it. 

The trip in the cable car (they call it Gondola) itself is breath taking; we will see snow every where during this cable car travel. 

There are 3 games - Snow biking, Sledging and Skiing; 

Snow biking; there will be driver who will be driving it; we will sit in Pillion; if we request he will give us for ride for short period

Sledging

Skiing

Snow biking and sledging are really good and one must certainly do both of them- atleast Snow biking.

 For snow biking, Government has fixed Rs 1000 per head for a short trip of 20 minutes. If we give some tips to the driver, they will guide us how to drive the bike in snow and give us the bike to drive. It was a wonderful experience !

Sledging- they pull us in snow and take to few places including the Snow biking point; We paid 1500 for two people for sledging. 

We spent almost half day in the snow games place and surprisingly the Sun was out brightly & it was hot. We did not feel much cold there. 

Gulmarg is slightly in a higher terrain and it take 1.5 hours to 2 hours to reach Gulmarg; most of the people go from Srinagar and return on the same day; very few stay near Gulmarg and hotels there are costly as only few are there.  

If one has motion sickness, better to take a vomitting tablet in the morning itself while going to Gulmarg. (Not very steep and has few hairpin bends only- but still its better to be cautious for those who has this issue)

Pehalgam is another place- this is almost 2 to 2.5 hours journey from Srinagar and this was the coldest place among all the places we went. 

We stayed here for 1 day. 

Horse ride @Phahalgam

Phahalgam.. coldest place

There are 3 places to cover here- Aaru Valley, Bethab valley and Chandan wari (ABC)

Aaru valley is in a particular direction ; Bethab valley and Chandan wari together are in a different direction. These two are just a few kilo meter away from one another and normally people go to Bethab valley and Chandan wari together.

Aaru valley and Bethab valley are greeneries/ sight seeing places and even during May its extremely cold in the day time too ! 

Aaru valley

Bethab valley.. it got this name because of a Hindi movie Bethab, a song of which was shot here..

We visit these places for enjoying the climate and to take some photos behind beautiful snow filled mountains. 

Chandan wari : This is slightly in a higher altitute and most of the times it will be filled with snow fully and we can enjoy some snow games also (Not like Motor bike- but smaller games like Sledging etc) ;

Chandan Wari

Those who cannot go to Gulmarg (Getting cable car ticket there is the biggest task !) can enjoy the Snow in Chandan wari.

All these 3 places are in Phahalgam; While we go there in our own car, we are not supposed to use the car that we take from Srinagar; we need to use the local taxi from Phahalgam (they call it Union Taxi); the cost for covering all these 2 places in the Union Taxi is around 2,200 ( It was included by our travel agent in the overall budget- we did not pay it separately)

We also visited Dhooth Patri- it is a small hill station, less explored; 

Climate was good and there are some beautiful landscape and mountains in the background.

With a local @ Dhoodh Patri

8. How much it will cost for the trip? 

For 5 days - hotel,  transport- Local car, Union Taxi, Shikara ride for 2 hours, House boat stay, Morning and night - 2 times - food - for 2 people the travel agent charges around 48,000. Snow games + Gondola travel cost at actual, Tips for drivers and games people if any and lunch charges we need to bear; most other cost is covered in the cost we pay to the travel agent. 

Flight charges are separate; agent can help you to book or you can book it on your own.

9. How is the food at Kashmir? 

Having Tea at a local shop in Pehalgam

Mostly we get Chapathi, Naan, Roti, Poha and some curry (Mixed veg, Panneer) every where; we also have rice and dhall; also chicken gravy in all the places. We did not see biriyani, Mutton gravi or Fish in any of the  hotels. There will be a sweet (Invariably some Payasam); rice did not suit us much; we almost had Chapathi / gravy and sweet only in most places. But these are good in all the hotels. 

10. Is it safe to travel around Kashmir? 

We found it like any other city in India and did not see any threat; of course you can see Police people standing in some prominent places like Markets, etc in Srinagar and few other places. 

But Kashmir is not fully explored and embraced by most people. Except places like Gulmarg which is well crowded, other places are not much crowded like any other Indian hill station.

11. What should we take while going for the Kashmir trip?

Kashmir is exactly opposite to Chennai; Chennai weather - is- Hot - Hotter- Hottest. Kashmir is Cold- Colder- Coldest. So take jackets, gloves, Thermal wear, Cap (Kulla) etc as many as possible. In some places like Phahlagam, it is worth putting 2 kinds of jackets also; we took many sweaters/ overcoats/ gloves and used almost everything there. Nothing was unused. Shoes are must ( Snow places - mandatorily we need to hire Bigger shoes (Boots) in the nearby shops for rental- they charge Rs 100); similarly there are track pants which can absorb water- these are must for places covered with snow. 

With Shakib, our driver in a Mustard garden

Also one should carry umbrella as it may rain occasionally. 

Please note that Prepaid sim cards do not work in Kashmir; so most of our sim cards will not work there (Not even incoming !); we need to get some postpaid sim once we reach there (Our driver gave his 2nd sim; we just paid the recharge amount of Rs 200 to him).

12. Things to buy?

Cricket bats are made from Kashmir willow and its very cheap and of good quality; 

Chitra is standing before the tree from which Cricket willows are made.. 

We did not know how to carry bat in flight and whether they will allow as a hand luggage- hence did not buy. If the bigger bag can accomodate it, we can buy it.

Kashmiri carpets are very famous - mostly made out of hand work- will start from 15,000 & will go upto a lakh- but compared to other places - it will be cheaper

Dry fruits - you can certainly buy from here- quality is very good- much better than we get in Chennai and cheaper also.

Saffron is quite famous here and most of the tourist buy it; Kashmiri Tea "Kawa"- this is completely different from what we drink here- its a different experience- we can buy this 'Kawa" Tea for our home

Shawl and Stoll - these are good too 

We visited Lal Chowk - a famous market in Srinagar just to have a feel of it- 

Before the Iconic Tower clock @ Lal Chowk Market

Could not spend much time and spent hardly an hour and did limited purchase

Most places you need to bargain- you can easily ask for half price and can close the negotiation with 60 to 70 % in many cases.

Finally..

Kashmir is certainly worth visiting- for wonderful climate, fantastic greenery, snow filled mountains and a not much crowded hill station !